UW Opens Satellite Campus in North Korea

After the success of the Dubai satellite campus, the University of Waterloo has opened a new satellite campus in Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea.  While this seems like a strange move, the University of Waterloo’s public relations department explains that it is the obvious move for the unconventional and innovative university.

“The University of Waterloo is well known internationally.  When we started the satellite campus in Dubai, we wanted to bring the University of Waterloo experience to more international students who can’t necessarily come to Canada for school,” said Albert Behringer, head coordinator of the new University of Waterloo campus.

With the North Korean campus now well into its third month of operation, administrators are already calling it a success.  Even with the recent St Patrick’s Day celebrations causing some rowdiness back at the home campus in Waterloo, administrators at the North Korean campus reported that students were well behaved and were very good at following orders.

North Korean government officials were very supportive of the idea of the new satellite campus right from the start and were especially excited when they heard that the new Nuclear Engineering program would be piloted at this campus.

Unfortunately, students will be unable to leave North Korea and will not be able to join their peers from the Dubai and Waterloo based campuses for their third and fourth years of study. The system currently in place with the Dubai campus requires students to complete their last two years of study at the main campus in Waterloo and the students receive an accredited Canadian engineering degree.  Initially the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) was uneasy about the prospects of giving a Canadian accreditation to the Nuclear Engineering program as the students would be completing all four years in North Korea.  This decision was changed, however, after the CEAB visited the new campus as part of the accreditation process.  One of the CEAB members reportedly enjoyed the visit so much that he never left North Korea.

In accordance with North Korean laws, a 60” chrome statue of Kim Jong-il has been adopted as the mascot of the North Korean campus’ engineering society.

Both the University of Waterloo and the North Korean government look forward to seeing the success of this new campus and are eager to see what the Nuclear Engineering program can produce.